In a wireless communications system, such as: a long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, a new carrier type (New Carrier Type, NCT) is introduced, which may also be called an additional carrier type (Additional Carrier Type, ACT), and the name of this type is not limited in embodiments of the present application. An NCT carrier may not be capable of bearing a cell-specific reference signal (Cell-specific Reference Signal, CRS); or may be capable of bearing the CRS, however, the CRS cannot be transmitted in continuous subframes and cannot be used for demodulation (for example, cannot be used for demodulating control information, a broadcast message, or data). In addition, the NCT carrier may not be capable of bearing synchronization information or broadcast information. Therefore, a terminal may not be capable of independently access an NCT carrier cell. In this case, the terminal can only first access a non-NCT carrier cell, that is a backward compatible (legacy) carrier cell, so as to receive the synchronization information or the broadcast information. Then according to the foregoing received synchronization information or broadcast information, the terminal accesses the NCT carrier cell, so as to complete communication.
However, as for a scenario where the terminal only supports one carrier, the terminal may not be capable of accessing the NCT carrier cell; therefore, the terminal cannot perform communication through the NCT carrier cell.